Availability Information Using SAP ERP
If you do not use SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO), you can obtain availability information from SAP ERP when you create or change a quotation or sales order in SAP CRM. For more information, see Availability Information.
The availability information for the sales order comes from SAP ERP.
You have made the settings in Customizing for SAP CRM under .
A simulated availability check is carried out, and the results are displayed in the order item as confirmation schedule lines. When the sales transaction is saved, these confirmation schedule lines are automatically deleted.
When availability information is gathered during a sales transaction, the product is not reserved and no ATP requirement is sent to production or purchasing. This takes place when the sales order is transferred to SAP ERP.
To maintain optimal system performance, availability information is not automatically obtained in the sales transaction. To obtain availability information, select the relevant items and choose . You can obtain availability information for each item, regardless of the item category.
The restrictions are as follows:
Scheduling does not take place.
When you obtain availability information for a product in a sales transaction, this does not block the corresponding quantity for subsequent sales transactions for which availability information is obtained at the same time.
It is possible to obtain availability information only for a certain date, not a certain time.
Once you save the sales transaction, the availability information is discarded and can no longer be displayed.
You can obtain reliable availability information only when creating an item. If you try to obtain availability information only when changing an item later, after the sales transaction has already been transferred to SAP ERP, you get incorrect results.
When the sales transaction is transferred to SAP ERP, the required quantity for the item is reserved there. However, the confirmation schedule lines are deleted in the item when the sales transaction is saved in SAP CRM. Therefore, if you try to obtain availability information when you change or display the item in SAP CRM, the system does not recognize that the required quantity has already been reserved in SAP ERP. However, this restriction does not apply to new items that you create when you change the sales transaction.
To obtain availability information for one or more products, proceed as follows:
Enter the products and the quantity.
Select the relevant items and choose .
You find detailed availability information for an item in the assignment block Schedule Lines
.
Note
If you make changes to the product or its quantity, either in the item or in the schedule line, the availability information is not automatically updated. To update it, repeat step 2.